Arburg's Technology Days 2026

Arburg's Technology Days 2026 were held from 11 to 13 March in Lossburg (Germany), the international event that the German company dedicates each year to customers, partners and media from around the world. More than 40 exhibits featuring applications and new products provided the backdrop for a press conference at which the recently renewed management team offered a clear and detailed overview of the current market situation.

As Michael Hehl, Managing Partner and Spokesperson for the Management Board, was keen to stress, this change does not affect the company's core identity: Arburg was, is and will remain an independent family-owned company, owned by the Hehl and Keinath families. Volker Nilles, who took up the role of CEO in January of this year with over thirty years of managerial experience in the mechanical engineering and automotive sectors, made his debut before the international press, outlining five pillars on which he intends to build the company's growth strategy: performance, efficiency, ease of use, problem-solving capability and reliability as a long-term partner.

A challenging landscape
Tobias Baur, Managing Director Sales and After Sales, provided an assessment of market conditions. The year 2025 proved demanding for the plastics and mechanical engineering industry as a whole, and the early months of 2026 offer no clear signs of a turning point. Geopolitical pressures and economic policy uncertainty continue to hold back the recovery of investment.

Geographically, the picture is mixed: in Germany, innovative capacity remains at a low level; across Europe, a slight improvement is visible, more pronounced in the east than in the west, though structural challenges – from the relocation of production abroad to competition from Asia – continue to weigh on the mechanical engineering sector. In the United States, 2025 proved surprisingly positive, albeit against a backdrop of cautious investment. In Asia, and in China in particular, performance was stronger than in other markets, confirming the region as the world's largest sales market for injection moulding machines.

On the application side, the medical sector recorded slight growth, packaging remains stable with further potential, electronics is benefiting from impulses linked to artificial intelligence and electromobility, whilst the automotive sector remains in a phase of contraction. Against this backdrop, the after-sales business continues to perform solidly, driven above all by growing demand for personalised digital services.

Financially, Arburg closed 2025 with consolidated turnover of approximately 575 million euros, down four per cent on the previous year – a result in line with the broader difficulties facing the sector but approached from a position of strength as an independent family-owned company.

Automation and Turnkey solutions
One of the strategic themes most emphasised by Guido Frohnhaus, Managing Director Technology and Engineering, was the growing importance of automation and turnkey solutions. The Automation and Turnkey division now represents a priority area of investment for Arburg, responding to the increasingly demanding requirements of its customers: maximum efficiency, process reliability, comprehensive traceability and flexible production. These are precisely the areas where Arburg's integrated solutions deliver the greatest added value.

The arburgSOLUTIONworld concept – which encompasses the company's entire portfolio – therefore extends well beyond the machine itself, embracing a complete ecosystem that includes automation, peripheral equipment and digital services. As Frohnhaus underlined, the goal is not maximum performance in absolute terms, but the right performance for each specific application: the measure that ultimately matters to the customer is the maximum number of good parts produced per hour, at the lowest possible unit cost.

Digitalisation as a competitive lever
In this context, digitalisation stands out as one of the strategic pillars on which Arburg intends to build its future growth. Steffen Kroner, Managing Director Finance, Controlling and IT, set out the full scope of this ambition.

The year 2026 marks a significant anniversary: forty years ago, at K 1986, Arburg presented the first fully interconnected injection moulding system managed by a central computer. It was the forerunner of the company's current MES – the ALS (Arburg host computer System) – which today, after four decades of continuous development, remains the industry benchmark and is used by companies worldwide.

Alongside this sits the arburgXworld customer portal, now used by over 6,000 companies and more than 20,000 active users globally. The platform supports customers across the entire value chain: from project planning and commissioning through to production, maintenance and traceability.

An increasingly prominent role is being assigned to artificial intelligence, integrated into the Gestica and Gestica lite control systems through assistance and self-optimisation functions that simplify the management of ever more complex processes. The stated goal is the creation of intelligent processes for efficient, high-quality manufacturing – accessible even to operators with minimal training.

The donut-ella project
Also worthy of note is the donut-ella project: a three-part cable winder, vaguely reminiscent of a doughnut in shape, made from recycled plastic and winner of the Pleiades – Plastic European Innovation Award for Design and Sustainability. Conceived by three design students from IUAV University in Vicenza (Italy) and selected from 38 competing entries, the device was produced live during the Technology Days on an electric Allrounder 1000 e Trend press, offering a tangible demonstration of the sustainability potential of injection moulding.

Arburg at Plast 2026
The Italian market holds a place of considerable strategic importance for Arburg, traditionally ranking among the company's top three European markets. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Plast 2026 – scheduled at Fiera Milano, Rho, from 9 to 12 June – is regarded as a key event. As Tobias Baur noted during a brief interview with the MacPlas editorial team, the company's participation in the Milan fair is not simply about exhibiting products; it represents above all a privileged opportunity to meet partners, from the distribution network to suppliers of automation and process solutions.

In this context, Arburg will bring to Plast not a standalone press, but an integrated system of solutions spanning monitoring, energy efficiency, reduction of operational costs and digital services. Leading applications include liquid silicone rubber (LSR), alongside solutions for packaging and the medical sector.